Co-working Offers Home-Office Alternative

Starting or running a small business doesn't have to mean working from your kitchen table, a spare bedroom or the closest Starbucks.

People over 40 embarking on encore careers as entrepreneurs or sole proprietors -- and more are all the time -- have unprecedented options for where to set up their laptops and do business, thanks to co-working spaces and other home-office alternatives cropping up in cities across the country.

Chris DiFonzo has a bird's-eye view of the trend. The 40-year-old former software salesman is CEO of OpenDesks, a year-old website that matches people looking for a spot to work with co-working facilities or companies that rent out unoccupied desks, offices or conference rooms by the day or month.

DiFonzo conceived of OpenDesks after four years of doing business primarily on the road, where he was constantly hunting for places to alight between appointments that were more professional than a noisy coffee shop or busy hotel lobby. Starting the company has put him in touch with all kinds of entrepreneurs who are testing the co-working waters. "I've met Ph.D.s working in astrophysics and enterprise guys who quit or got laid off and are working in co-working spaces figuring out what they want to do," he says.

If you're ready to quit the confines of your home office, here are some tips for navigating what's out there from DiFonzo and others:

1. Spaces come in many varieties; know what you're looking for. Co-working or shared working spaces offer open work spaces where you sit side-by-side with other people, offices with doors that close and conference rooms suitable for small or large meetings. Services such as OpenDesk and rivals LooseCubes, DeskTime and Deskwanted are creating competing databases that people can use for free to find work spaces near them. And there's more space available all the time; co-working facilities jumped 17 percent from February to May, to around 830 worldwide, according to Deskmag, an online magazine covering the trend.

2. Fees vary. Expect to pay $25 to $35 to rent desk space for a single day or $275 to $300 a month for dedicated space, DiFonzo says. Some companies that rent out underused office space give discounts to consultants, frequent collaborators or people they might be interested in eventually hiring as employees, he says. Regardless of what you end up with, it's a cheap alternative to leasing office space if you're just starting a business, he says.

3. Amenities vary. These days, besides a desk and chair, almost any co-working space offers high-speed wireless internet connections, coffee, water and restrooms, DiFonzo says. Higher-end spaces also may make office supplies, copy machines, printers and a kitchen available, but ask beforehand. Be prepared to bring anything else you need with you, including phone and computer power supplies.

4. To look for space on the fly, use an app. A just-launched iPhone app called LiquidSpace can help locate available open office space when you're on the road. The free, location-aware app distinguishes between public spaces, fee-based office space in co-working or shared-work venues, and private space offered by companies with empty offices they're willing to share.

5. Don't be afraid to experiment. You might think you want one type of space, when something else might be better suited to your needs. One woman used OpenDesk to book a day at a professional office suite because she wanted the privacy. "It turned out the people weren't really friendly" and didn't want to get to know her, and she didn't like that, so she switched to a more open co-working space and was happier, DiFonzo says.

6. It's not an all-or-nothing proposition. Avid fans may advocate for co-working on a permanent basis, but you don't have to use it all the time to benefit, DiFonzo says. For many people, it's more practical to "date" space: conduct a meeting in someone's conference room one day and rent space somewhere else another, he says. "A blend of working from home and working other places definitely has major benefits, particularly if you have a team of people, even if it's a loose team of contractors, business partners or potential co-founders," he says. At OpenDesk, "We found that after working really hard for 10 months completely remotely, [during] the past two months of having office space, we got 10 times more done."

Related Video: When Coloft founders Avesta Rasouli and Cameron Kashani couldn't find a shared work space, they started one of their own.
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